


Always

by fair_veronian



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst and Humor, Dialogue, F/M, Familial Relationships, Fix-It, Gen, Mild Language
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-15 08:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7214320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fair_veronian/pseuds/fair_veronian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a little bit more wish fulfilment.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Sometimes Knowing the Ending is OK.

**Author's Note:**

> Snippety bits of conversations I wish had been real, AU take on S4, if I try hard enough I can pretend this is what actually happened! Will likely be more, probably not in order, sorry.

“Gramps? Oh god this is it. Oh God, Gran must be here too! C’mon River, get a ruddy grip, you know the plan, Gran only made you repeat it every night for a month! OK, you can do this.”

“Doctor, so good of you to come, Donna, you too, now, you realise I know you but you don’t know me, how it has to be I’m afraid. Let’s avoid the awkward conversations shall we, this Library is infested, Vashta Nerada, their forest was used for the books. Everyone, suits stay on, I’m going to ramp up the mesh density. Stay out of the shadows, they’re deadly. Anita, Other Dave get the lights on, big circle facing out. And Really, Stay. Out. Of. The. Shadows. Doctor I have a device you will give me which will allow for the transfer of the people trapped by the transport devices, we need to get to the core, to access the memory bank. Also we need a way to keep the swarm back while we do this. Gr, uh Donna, would you mind terribly helping Miss Evangelista keep Mr Lux calm, she’s a darling but not the most assertive, he’s likely to get her killed without realising, thank you. Proper Dave if you could call up the main data core we should be able to locate the memory bank and identify a safe path. Doctor, could you start working on a way to modify the sonic to manipulate light frequencies, maybe we can hold the swarm off with that.” 

“Oi, where’d you get off blondie, orderin’ me about? ’Ere, where’d you go, I was talking to you! What, no sorry love, not you, nevermind, ruddy spacefolk, what can I do?”

“OK, so you’re from my future?” 

“Yup”

“And do I like you then?”

“Love me, always have”

“OK, sooo, why do you call Donna and I Gran and Gramps?”

“No idea, really, misplaced affection for brilliant strangers?”

“Nooo, you’re my Granddaughter, and Donna’s, so we end up together, and have children? Your mother? Father? Oh this is Brilliant, do you know when? Do I ask her or does she ask me? Oh who am I kidding, of course I ask her. Brilliant. Molto Bene. Fantastico!”

“Doctor! Really, after all the lectures I had to sit through on temporal law you WILL do me the decency of shutting up! I’m saying nothing other than what is necessary so stop asking the wrong questions.”

“Right, yes, good, glad you were listening, so wrong questions, what’re the right questions then?”

“How will we transport 4022 people out of the Library before the swarm eats them? What device did you give me? Why did you leave before Mum’s funeral?”

“What? Funeral, who, how, No, Jenny? She survived? Jenny’s alive?, Jenny’s your MUM? Blimey, well, right then, here, setting 634, point and click, well, you know. Where’s this device then? Oh thanks, well, ooh I am good, bio-neural relay mimicking humanoid memory engram patterns, huuuge capacity, beautiful, bellisima! Emergency beacon still transmitting so just tweak this and, there yes, transport vessel arriving in 56 minutes, should be plenty of time, lovely.”

“You done?”

“What, sorry, oh yes, done”

“Right, well, lord know’s how Gran puts up with that all the time? Anyway, thanks, it’s been lovely but we’d best not spend too long chatting, puts things out of whack, yes?”

“Yes, right, wait, one more question, just one, I promise. Are we happy?”

“Always”


	2. Her Mother's Daughter

“Dad! DAD! Move, you’ve got to let me help her, please, just move!”

“Jenny, oh my beautiful Jenny, you can’t, she won’t, I don’t”

“Honestly Dad, I know you’re upset but Mum’s right, you’re a great big outer space DUNCE! Now shift it dumbo, let me HELP!”

“Ow, Jenny! What was that for, please, I need to”

“You need to zip it, I’ve got to concentrate. Come on Mum, I know you can hear me, that’s it, I know, oh Mum, it’s OK, he’s just scared, honest, it’s OK, we’ll be fine I promise, let me help you, that’s it, there you go, oh wow, yeah Mum I see it, OK, here goes!”

“Jenny! Jenny, what’s going on? What are you doing? Please she’ll die, you’ve got to let me stop it, please Jenny, please, she can’t die, she can’t.”

“Oh stop your whinging Spaceman, you sound like Nery’s after one too many G&T’s!”

“Donna!”

“Mum!”

“Yeah, yeah, not so loud hm, feels like I’ve done ten rounds up here, Jenny love, you OK, that was blimmin’ risky, remind me not to do that again, yeah? Spaceman, you need to check on our girl, she’s just had a massive upload and I’m not sure how well I organised it all, I’m just gonna lay down for a minute.”

“Mum!”

“Donna!”

“Jenny, What. Did. You. Do?”

“Oh stabilised the residual regenerative energy by accepting a Gallifreyan familial bond, redirecting sufficient quantities into mitochondrial and chromosomal restructuring while siphoning off the excess neurological activity into a suitable biological receptacle allowing for inherent genetic disparities and compensating for increased metabolic consumption. Nothing too fancy, why, what did you think I was doing?”

“Oh, right well, Oh Jenny! That’s BRILLIANT, how did you know to do that though, I would never have thought of it”

“Well obviously, it was Mum’s idea, she knew you’d ‘lose your head’ I think she said, so she initiated a bond with me so she could show me what to do. Pretty smart eh Dad?”

“Yeah, my Donna, always being brilliant. Wait, bond? She bonded to you as a parent? She didn’t want to bond with me?”

“Oh Dad, she will, I know it, if it’s in her head it’s in mine, well no, not so much actually, just a few bits, ooh, what’s chocolate, Mum reaallly likes chocolate, do we have any? But yeah, she will, you just didn’t happen to have an empty Time Lord brain waiting for an information upload, so she asked me, I know so much stuff now, is this what you know all the time, that’s, that’s, oh that’s quite lonely actually, oh Dad, you won’t be lonely anymore I promise.”

“Jenny, oh Jenny, I’m sorry you can see all that, really I am, you shouldn’t have to remember what I’ve done.”

“Oh no, Dad I don’t, Mum kept those, said didn’t want two emo Time Lord’s to put up with, ‘not enough hob nobs in the universe’ she said, ooh they sound good, can we have some of those, with chocolate? Please Dad.”

“What do you mean she kept my memories, she’ll burn, she can’t do that, Jenny, we have to take them back!”

“Not a chance Timeboy, Jenny got the knowledge, the stuff she’ll need to understand, you know, to be a proper Time Lady, I got you, memories, emotions, personality traits, the stuff a Human Brain can cope with easily enough. I’ve put them away, not even peeked. Promise, but until my cellular regeneration is done I had to shift the bigger on the inside bit to a brain that can stretch that way. So, Time Lady. Now I’m parched and my arse is going numb sat on this floor so, kitchen, tea, bed, now please Spaceman.”

“Oh my beautiful, brilliant Donna, mia bella Donna, tea, yes of course, but, Jenny can put the kettle on can’t you love, I’ll take you through to the med-bay, you can rest while we monitor you, now, no arguing, DNA manipulation is an unpredictable business and I just want to make sure you won’t end up as some giant scorpion with a face, OK? Good, now, up we go.”

“Oi, Spaceman, put me down, I can walk, you’ll do your back in, come on, Doctor, I’m serious put me down this minute or”

“Donna! You will let me carry you, you will let me look after you and you will do it quietly. You nearly died Donna, again, and I don’t know what I would have done if that happened but I know it would be bad, so, if you think for one second that I’m going to just let you swan off as usual without making sure you’re still going to be here tomorrow you are sorely mistaken!”

“Alright Spaceman, other near death experiences aside, I’ll let you have this one but no bleeping me, got it!”

“Deal Earthgirl, now, just lie down and let me check you over.”

“Oi hands!”

“Donna, I AM a Doctor, just relax and let me get on, quicker I start, quicker I finish, OK”

“Fine, but you owe me Timeboy”

“Always”


	3. Wake up call

“But I came all this way!” 

“Rose, you have to go back, your mum, your brother, your dad, your whole life is there, we need you to go back so the dimensions can heal properly, and you need to accept that you belong there”

“No I DONT!

“ROSE MARION TYLER”

“Doctor! Tell him, he says I have to back to that parallel world, after I worked so hard to get back here, I’m not going, you want me to stay don’t you? Tell him”

“I’m sorry Rose but he’s right, you may have thought you were doing the right thing but all your bouncing around universes is very probably the reason Dalek Caan could escape the timelock in the first place. We need to go back and destroy the cannon and you need to go home to your family.”

“What? Doctor No! I can’t go back there, you’re not there, I Love you! I want to stay here”

“I’m sorry Rose, really I am, but that’s not how this goes, Jackie, can I borrow your phone?”

“But Doctor!”

“Yeah, but what for?”

“So I can Target Pete’s phone and get you as close to home as possible. I need to get to your world’s Torchwood so I can neutralise the cannon, prevent the technology from causing anymore damage and let the walls close properly. There are worse things than the Daleks in that timelock and I don’t want them running loose in any universe.”

“Doctor, please! I came so far”

“Right, well here you are, any chance you can upgrade my minutes whilst you’re at it?”

“Cheeky, I’ll see what I can do, thanks”

“Doctor?”

“There that should do it, and, here we are, Pete’s world”

“Doc?”

“So, I’ll need access to any records you had on the cannon, anything paper will have to be destroyed too, and all the jumpers, I’ll need those too”

“DOCTOR!”

“What IS it Jack? Rather busy over here”

“It’s the Duplicate, he just collapsed, he’s breathing but it’s shallow and his pulse is thready”

“Dad! We need to, oh right, ok, yes, you sort the cannon, me and Martha can sort this out”

“We can?”

“Course we can, Dad, hurry, the walls are already closing and the old girl would rather not get stuck”

“Oh, oh ok, yes well, carry on, Jack, if you would, I might need a little help with this one”

“Sure thing Doc, Ladies, back in a mo, you keep him safe yeah?”

“On it Jack”

“Allons’y then, after you Jackie”

“Mum, I can’t go back, you know how long I was trying, I can’t go back there now”

“You can and you will Rose, you’re dead in the other universe, figuratively and literally, if I take you back there the Shadow Proclamation will execute you for temporal violations leading to the extinction of the universes you punched through trying to find me. I wasn’t joking around all those years ago, you have seriously damaged time and space and this is the only way I can punish you sufficiently without letting them kill you. And I will let them if you pull something like this again. One life for the rest of existence, even I can’t ignore that. Go Home Rose, forget me and live your life.”

“No, Doctor, that’s not true, I didn’t, I never”

“No you didn’t Rose, you didn’t think, you didn’t care and now you don’t get a choice, go home or die. Which is it?”

“I, I, I’m sorry Doctor. I’m so sorry”

“Thank you, now go to your mother and say that again, Jack you nearly done?”

“All packed and ready to go Doc”

“Good, well, goodbye then”

“Bye Rose”

“Yeah, bye jack, bye Doctor”

“Doc, would they really execute her?”

“Oh absolutely Jack”

“Would you really let them?”

“I couldn’t stop them if I tried”

“Wow, that’s, well that sucks”

“Yeah”

“So home universe then? We need to see how the Duplicate’s doing”

“We really need to get him a name don’t we?”

“Yep, I like Andrew, could call him Andy, like Handy you know cos of the”

“Don’t Jack”

“Aww Doc, you know you love me really”

“That’s up for debate Jack”

“Ah but, now there’s two of you, you could at least share”

“Never gonna happen Jack, anyway you still owe me that drink”

“Maybe Andy’s a bigger drinker than you heh? I can be patient, I’ve got forever to play with”

“Forever’s a long time to wait Jack”

“You sound like you know something I don’t?”

“Always”


	4. Happy Accident

“OK Jenny, how exactly are we going to fix him? What’s the problem, he was fine earlier?”

“Hypoxia, he only has one heart, it can’t provide enough oxygen to his brain, Time Lord physiology requires a huge amount of energy to maintain itself. You are going to monitor our vitals while I try something I picked up from Mum and Dad’s knowledge. We need to get back to the med bay, mum will need to help out.”

“How’s Donna going to help? I thought she was resting, I don’t want to endanger her too.”

"Mum’s still Human at the moment, the changes to her physiology will happen slowly, I can use her as a template to show his body how to manage the change. It’ll likely happen quicker for him as he’s already got the Time Lord template for his nervous system. We just need to do a quick download and his body should do the rest.”

“OK, I’m not going to pretend any of that made sense, are you sure you don’t want to wait for the Doctor to get back?”

“No, he needs to concentrate on the cannon, I can do this, I’ll just be providing a communication link really, they’re going to do all the hard work.”

“Blimey, he’s heavy enough for a skinny bloke isn’t he!”

“Don’t worry, I can manage, if you could just, yes, thank you. Right what do you need to attach before I start?”

“OK, well, there’s the heart monitors, blood pressure cuffs, oh and whatever these are, the TARDIS seems to think I’ll need them, I assume they’re some sort of neural monitor?” 

“She says yes, apparently she can monitor all of those if we wear one each. That’s useful, if you could keep an eye on the screen, I’ve asked for a translation for you. OK well, here goes.”

“Good luck”

“Martha, what’s she doing? What’s wrong with them? Why didn’t you wait for me? Jenny, what are you doing now?”

“Doctor! The TARDIS is monitoring everything, look, she knows what she’s doing and without it your duplicate would’ve died of hypoxia in about 2 weeks”

“What?! Why would he? Oh, right yes, one heart, oh my wonderful Jenny. Why didn’t I pay more attention, you’ve saved my whole family today and I wouldn’t even have had one if it weren’t for your daughter, Oh I am old, old and thick! Let me help Jenny, this is putting a lot of strain on your new abilities”

“Dad? Oh, thanks, that’s loads better. Do you see? Mum pointed it out again, do you want to tell him or should I go? You can manage here right?”

“I can manage, you go get him, he’ll need to decide for himself”

“Doctor? Jenny? What is it, do you need me to fetch someone?”

“It’s OK Martha, I’m on it, two ticks Dad”

“No rush, impatient as they both are this needs to be done steadily”

“Doc? Jenny said you wanted me?”

“Ah yes well, just a mo, Jenny, can you swap back while I explain it?”

“Yup, no worries Dad, there, off you go”

“Oi, cheeky! Jack, I’ve got something to ask you, Martha, I’m sorry, but this is quite private, would you mind?”

“What about those three, shouldn’t someone be monitoring them?”

“Oh don’t worry about that, I can manage”

“Oh, OK then, if you’re sure?”

“Absolutely, if it’s not too much trouble, a pot of tea for when they’re done would be brilliant”

“Yeah, I’ll go put the kettle on then”

“Thanks”

“OK Doc, you got me, what’s going on, you know how seeing you serious makes me worry?”

“Oh, Jack, no, no need to worry, it’s good news, well could be, I think it is, Donna and Andrew, he liked the name by the way, think it’s brilliant, it could make a huge change for you though Jack so we need you to think it over.”

“Think what over Doc? You’re babbling again”

“Oh, what, Oh right, yes, sorry, well, see Jack the thing is we could cure your immortality.”

“What? I thought you said it was impossible? What’s changed? Would I die straight away? What would happen to the fixed point thing?”

“Whoah, Jack, easy there, sorry, I’m not doing this very well. I did think it was impossible, Donna worked it out with some help from Jenny and Andrew. Their rewriting Andrew’s DNA at the moment, using Donna’s alterations as a template you see. Brilliant again, that’s my Donna, he wouldn’t have lasted more than two weeks with a Time Lord brain in a Human body.”

“Doctor! Babbling”

“Oh, sorry, so sorry Jack, it’s just so much has happened, even for me, but anyway, they got the idea that they could use the residual vortex energy to artificially trigger a regeneration, use what’s necessary to alter your own physiology and some of the over spill to speed up their transitions, and any excess would be naturally siphoned off by the regeneration process and the old girl could soak it up, would do her a bit of good too actually, now I come to think of it.”

“Doctor, are you saying I’d become a Time Lord? Able to regenerate but I’d die eventually?”

“Yes Jack, that’s it exactly, so what do you think? Do you trust us?”

“Always”


End file.
